Rider? Of Course I am a Rider!
by Ai Huiyuan
Summary: Eragon happens to find himself in a strange cell, Alex finds a strange man.


**Rider? Of course I am a Rider!**

 **AN: A lot of thanks to Kencha my wonderful beta-reader that helped a lot with the grammar and phrases making this fanfic readable. If you find any mistakes, please do tell. Also, constructive criticism is always welcome.**

 **Enjoy the story!**

* * *

Eragon awoke in a small room made of... some kind of stone? It was quite dark — only a strange little lantern with some kind of glowing worm inside hung from the ceiling. He lay on the floor and his wrists were held together with an odd sort of shiny and light handcuffs. He wondered whether he could break them. He was wearing his linen pants and shirt, gifts from the elves, but nothing else.

Looking around a little more he found that he wasn't alone. Apart from him, there was another boy in this room who had fair hair and wore some strange clothes. A black, mud strained, short sleeved shirt and some dark blue pants that looked really interesting. The boy had curled himself up and was sleeping. It was hard to tell how old he was, but if Eragon had to guess, he was probably in his teens, young adult at most.

Sitting up he examined the room further. There was a massive metal door leading to whatever place beyond it, it didn't had a handle or knob though. In the corner opposite the door was an empty bucket and in the upper corner furthest from the door was some strange black object. Although quite odd and different from Gil'ead (and any other prison he had ever seen) there was no question they were in a cell.

He slowly remembered how he had come here. He had awoken in an unfamiliar and strange forest in the same clothes he was wearing now, and he had been hit by some kind of needle causing him to go unconscious. When he woke up, he couldn't feel any familiar presences.

* * *

Next to him, the boy groaned, slowly trying to sit up, rubbing head and mess up his hair in the process. Eragon felt compelled to ask, "Are you okay?"

The boy's head snapped towards him, brown eyes observing him critically, taking in his clothes and eyes finally landing on his handcuffed wrists. Then he observed the room flickering over the walls and lingering on the corner with the small black object for a short moment. The boy turned away from it and answered: "I'm fine. Who are you?"

It seemed the boy was able to understand him and vice versa. Good. "Eragon. And you?"

"Alex. Your name sounds strange... and you are wearing weird clothes, too," the other boy mused.

"Yours, too," Eragon replied.

The boy - Alex - looked confused. "Actually, I think my name is quite common."

Eragon was confused, he had never heard of anyone named like that. Changing the topic, he asked Alex a question that seemed more important to him right now: "Do you know what that black object in the upper corner is?" It could be some exploding device or a strange gem left there to hinder his powers. Then again, it might be an odd decoration for all he knew.

Alex looked at him, surprised. "You noticed?"

"Of course," Eragon wanted to say, but the boy continued without giving him the chance to do so: "It's a camera! Haven't you seen one before? The streets are full of them!" That didn't help at all. What was a 'camera' and how were the streets full of them?

So he asked: "What is a camera?"

Alex looked at him bewildered. "You don't know what a camera is?! Under what rock have you been living under?"

"I don't live…" Eragon began.

"That's a figure of speech. Besides, a camera can capture and transmit pictures to our captors who are probably watching now. That's why I turned my back to it." Before he could ask further questions, his ears picked up two sets of footsteps coming nearer.

"What's up?" Alex asked.

"Someone is coming. I can hear two people. Probably male." Alex tensed. Eragon closed his eyes and reached out with his mind to see if he could feel what those people were up to. They had no mental shield and didn't seem to acknowledge his presence. Their thoughts were somewhat hard to understand because of the many words he didn't know, but it was clear to him that their intentions weren't good. They were downright sadistic and thirsty for revenge. They were prepared to torture them, to interrogate them for any information they might have.

"They want to..." he paused, "...ask us some questions."

"You mean interrogate us." Alex eyes hardened. "No need to downplay it for me. I am not a little kid, you know?"

Before Eragon could think up a response to that, the footsteps paused in front of their door. Someone unlocked it and it was opened with a loud bang causing his ears to ring.

* * *

Two men stood in a dark corridor. One was large with broad shoulders just like Horst the other one was a bit smaller and more slim.

"Look, what we have here?" the latter began. "It seems that my men captured the two boys who fit the description." Alex and Eragon looked at each other. They saw no similarities between each other apart from their similar age and... toned bodies maybe. "So, which one of you is a 'Rider'?"

"I am," Eragon answered, turning his palms upwards. He himself might look young, but he was sure the boy beside him was as old as he looked. The man sneered and launched a long speech about how evil those people were, destroying other people's plans, operations and organisations, betraying their allies. How he would destroy every remaining one of them so they couldn't have any spouses and never bother him again, but he promised to do so slowly, cruelly and relish in that feeling. Eragon was sure he wasn't actually meant with that

"Now, my dear friend Fred will have some fun with you!" The man left and the other approached and closed the door.

"So, let's have some fun!" Fred got a whip out. He raised his arm high above Eragon who was still sitting and brought it down…

Eragon awoke with a start. It just had been a bad dream. Everything was fine. He was fine as one could be these times. He saw Saphira sleeping beside him and decided to go to sleep again.

Alex shot up from his bed and looked around. A nightmare, albeit a really strange one. He was in his own room. It was 3:34 in the morning. He went to sleep again.

Beside him on the bedside table lay a green book.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading! Tell me whether you enjoyed it, please!**


End file.
